GLENN RAMEY
RICHLAND CO., Ill. - The public defender appointed to handle accused murderer Glenn Ramey's case is already going above and beyond.
Earlier today (Thursday, December 15), a hearing was held on a motion made last week (Dec. 9) by Ramey's court-appointed attorney Jim Lane, regarding defendant's fitness.
And he's not talking about physical fitness.
Ramey, who is perfectly capable of running all over town, getting into fights with 16-year-old kids, hanging out with other lowlifes drinking beer and smoking cigarettes, and working odd jobs for people such as shade-tree mechanic work, lawn mowing and wood splitting/tree trimming (as well as stealing anything not nailed down), suddenly becomes mentally incompetent when he's charged with a serious crime. This is how he got out of theft charges in Crawford County in 2011, and the sexual abuse of his own son in Massac County, an incident where DCFS founded the abuse but the courts believed it "too difficult" to prosecute some 20 years ago.
As predicted in both newspapers released prior to the SCHEDULED court date that was to take place tomorrow (Dec. 16), Ramey has pulled out the "mental fitness" card and that's what Lane filed last week.
He was able to slide a hearing in today and during that, the court determined that a mental fitness exam conducted in early 2012 after the Crawford County case, can be taken into consideration in this case. The documents from that exam were filed under seal today by Judge Larry Dunn. It was also ordered that Ramey must undergo a new fitness exam pertaining to his fitness to understand the charges against him in the rape and murder of 8-year-old Sabrina Stauffenberg November 23, and to assist in his own defense. In light of this order today, there will be no preliminary hearing tomorrow, so people who were making plans to attend the hearing (a great number of people still don't understand that court hearings are public and that they can come and observe them) have now found their plans changed.
People who have known and associated with Ramey over the past several decades (including his own mother) have, one after the other, told Disclosure that Ramey will "play like he's crazy" so he will get out of the murder charge. They state that he is perfectly capable of conducting his day-to-day business until it comes to being charged with a crime; then he becomes "mentally incompetent." These same associates state that Ramey knows full well what he's doing by "playing crazy," and that it is a ploy.
Unfortunately the state psychologists tasked with discovering this duplicity generally can't. They might be able to raise a question as to mental unfitness - as in the case of Tamara Williams, which was decided yesterday in Williamson County - and show that a person is "insane" when they commit a murder as in the case of Williams, but they seem to have a hard time being able to ascertain when they're being fooled. Under the current circumstance, Judge Dunn has ordered that no Department of Human Services documents will be provided to Dr. Jerry Boyd, the shrink set to do the evaluation, and no DHS facilities will be used in the exam to be conducted by Dr. Boyd. While we haven't had that completely clarified by court officials, that appears to us that Dr. Boyd gets to examine Ramey "cold"...meaning that prior history can't be taken into consideration, and so his prior "playing the crazy card" antics won't be considered.
State's Attorney Brad Vaughn is in kind of a difficult spot with it, as, if there is a question of mental fitness raised, he can object but such an objection doesn't do much good; if there's a question of a person's competence to stand trial, it really needs to be answered. So Vaughn today didn't object. The matter has therefore been set for a January 27 status hearing. It's possible the exam results won't be back by then. So this at the very least will drag out a little longer, and Richland County taxpayers are going to be giving Ramey three hots and a cot in a place that, judging by the appearance of his last digs, is a great improvement and he doesn't have to pay extra to stay warm like the rest of us will this winter.
Give us your input, here or on social networking, as to what you think about this turn of events. Does Ramey know what he's doing? Or is he so "crazy" that he's just oblivious and knows how it's worked out in the past, so he's just going along with it as a matter of rote? Is this justice for both the victim and the accused? Discuss.